On July 5, the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD) and the New Mexico Association of Energy Engineers (NMAEE) along with Jemez Pueblo celebrated the success of a solar-powered wastewater treatment system. The NMAEE awarded Jemez Pueblo Gov. James Roger Madalena with the Association’s “Environmental Project of the Year” award for the system, which has helped the pueblo decrease the smell given off by nearby wastewater lagoons while also eliminating the immediate risk of overflow from the lagoons into the Jemez River.

The silvery minnow stares down another dry summer

By Laura Paskus

With all this rain falling on the Duke City--the backyard vegetable garden is growing wild; the crabgrass in the front yard has been miraculously resurrected--thoughts naturally turn to … the silvery minnow.

MySpace Matters—I'm stoked to note that MySpace updated its terms in the user agreement to include an explanation of how it handles the rights to material posted there [Thin Line, "Hey, This Isn't 'My'Space," May 18]. Thanks, Webmonkey, for pointing this out. All you MySpace users out there owe it to yourselves to look it up, especially if you are one of the bazillion bands on the site posting songs, lyrics and incessant event invites.

Dateline: Germany--A 61-year-old man, on trial for theft, didn’t do his case much good by stealing the judge’s keys during a court hearing. Police in the central town of Coburg said that while facing the bench, the man pocketed a bunch of keys belonging to the judge, who did not notice until he had left the room. When confronted by court officials in the bathroom, the man told them he had been shocked to discover the keys in his pocket. “He told them he realized how suspicious his story would sound and that he had therefore hidden the keys under a toilet brush,” said police spokesman Bernhard Schmitt. “He’d been stealing all his life so it was probably just an intuitive act.” The man wrote out a confession, but the initial trial had to be temporarily suspended on legal grounds in case the judge--who had just been robbed by the defendent--showed bias in the case.